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Weather forecasting has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go before it will be a reliable tool for making water management decisions. That was the message delivered by various expert speakers during a half-day workshop titled “Can We Really Predict the Weather? The Latest in Forecasting.” The workshop, co-sponsored by the California Department of Water Resources and ACWA on Thursday, Nov. 9, featured presentations from local water district representatives, DWR and NASA. DWR Director Grant Davis and ACWA Deputy Executive Director for External Affairs Jennifer Persike kicked off the workshop with opening remarks.

Most Americans may not realize it, but we really don’t know with a lot of accuracy how much snow there is sitting in the mountains during winter. We also don’t always have a precise picture of where the snow level is when a storm moves in, or how much will run off when the snow melts. One reason for this is that, in most areas, the weather sensor network in the mountains simply isn’t very dense. Gauges that measure rain and snow are often placed for convenient access.

California WaterFix is at an impasse, or so it seems. In a perfect world, the project’s gaping hole in funding from State Water Project contractors, embarrassing outcomes from state and federal audits, and vehement opposition from the general public and environmental groups would have killed the tunnels. But the real world functions on compromise and profit. This view is echoed by those, including Jay Lund of UC Davis’s Center for Watershed Sciences, who say there is “no perfect solution” to California’s water crisis and suggest that tunnel opponents consider a single tunnel in the Delta.